It is Friday night at about 10:15 right now and my kids are asleep. I am just plain beat from my first week of summer schedule at work, and my body wants to quit on me. But there is something that has been bugging me lots recently, and I want to get it out.
There is a buttload of money at stake in the simple decisions of everyday folks like myself to make purchases as either debit transactions or credit. The same card is capable of both, and there is big money on both sides that want desperately to get all of us to side with them. Retailers pay less to credit card companies for debit transactions than they do for credit transactions, so they don't want you choosing credit. But your card issuer does. They get a kickback from the credit card company every time you do, and the credit card company in turn gets a higher fee.
As an individual, I pay a higher price for my gasoline, milk, aspirin, or whatever whether I select the debit option or not. Retailers pass the credit card fee on to us, remember. So the major problem for both parties is that there is nothing in it for me whether I select debit or credit. But a few years ago, the banks started splitting the kickbacks with consumers to convince us to choose the credit option. And it works. My wife and I got something like $500 back last year by never choosing debit unless we were actually getting cash back. A lot of banks have these gimmicks that actually work for you, so you should definitely contact your bank about it if you are not already in one of these programs. I don't know about other countries, but in the U.S. it makes sense.
But the retailers are not without their own methods. Every time I swipe my debit card at a retailer that has the capability to process a debit transaction I have to fight with their interface to figure out how to use my card for a straight credit transaction. Without exception, every store or gas station hides the credit option in the interface with deceitful menu options and unnecessary extra steps to get to the credit function. Go ahead and look for this. It is quite obvious once you expect it. And if your bank rewards you for it, find the credit option. I have to lie to a stupid gas pump by telling it I am not using a debit card when prompted, just so that it will not treat the transaction as a withdrawal. You can't even get cash from the pump. How can it be a withdrawal? Luckily, the clerks are apparently completely oblivious to the war going on over these fees, and they have all been willing to help me navigate my way to it when asked.
We are all constantly being corralled into sending our money to gigantic companies which got that way by doing a very good job of it. It is not just with these crap-ass machines. I paid close attention to the employee behind the register at McDonalds a few days ago, and I noticed a tone in her voice that was not right. I had experienced this before at two other fast food joints recently, so I was listening for it. When she said, "Would you like to make that medium or large?" her inflection very clearly made it sound as if those were the only options, rather than making a suggestion to upsize.
And then there are ambiguous sizes on 12" medium pizzas, 14" large, and 16" extra large. There is no small any more, and 16" used to be large.What the hell is that?
56.5 ounce ice cream boxes that used to be an even half-gallon.
58 ounce orange juice cartons that are masquerading amongst the 64s.
Hollowed out bottoms on peanut butter and mayonnaise jars.
Microsoft points that only exist to misdirect your attention away from how much money you are spending on your credit card.
Intentionally misleading menu items at Boston Market.
...and so on.
Arrrr!!! Damned scoundrels.
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